July!

This blog is a little belated, and that's because I just really am not in the mood to write it. I lack blog inspiration at the moment. Anyways, July was pretty legit. I was super bored for a lot of it, but it also had some shining stars in the black sky of excitement that is my life. (Okay, I'm really a crackhead today, just bear with me)

I started the month off fantastically by going to see He is We. :) I think I wrote about that in my last post, but I'll just re-state that they are incredible! I love them so much! This month I also chose to be one of the gazillion people who went to see Modest Mouse. I have to say that it was not my favorite show of all time; It was SO crowded, and we were SO far back. Regardless, Modest Mouse still gave a fantastic show. They definitely converted me from half-hearted fan to full-fan. And I had a fabulous downtown adventure with my friends Courtney and Braden. In my opinion, downtown adventures can make any situation great!

This month, I had the opportunity to go up to Rexburg for a family reunion (which doesn't happen very often). Some people I know don't even really talk to their extended family, but I really am best friends with most of my cousins, so I loved being able to hang out with them all; some of them I hadn't seen for a long time. We spent a day at Rigby Lake, and it was amazing! It's just this little lake with a beach and this totally sweet water slide out in the middle of it. Now that I know there's one worthwhile activity to participate in when I go to school, I'm not dreading it so much. I also acted like a true Idahoan and petted some calves that belonged to my cousins' neighbors, as well as almost kidnapping the cutest puppy ever named Orson. :) Maybe I'll be able to survive in potato land after all...

Next, I had the opportunity to spend a week with my dearest friend, Sorine Goodworth. If you don't know who Sorine is, you obviously don't know me very well and probably shouldn't read my blog. We've been best friends for as long as I can remember, but she moved to Grantsville when we were in first grade, so we don't see each other as often as we would like. Since she's leaving me to go to Snow in two weeks, and was going to be busy doing super exciting things for the rest of the summer, we decided to utilize her only free week the best way we know how: by having Alora-Sorine quality time all week! :D We kicked it off by going on a spontaneous Lagoon trip with our friends Katie and Ariel. We girls had a total blast! I got everyone to ride the OdySea, which is my favorite ride, and Katie kept me brave while I went on Wicked for the first time. Sorine and I even rode Rattle Snake Rapids four times in a row and looked like disgusting drowned rats, while Katie and Ariel looked all cute cuz they chose not to be nerds like us. ha ha It was way fun. :) Seeing as I'm always broke, and Sorine is leaving for college soon and is also broke, we chose to turn our week together into a non-money spending holiday. (Well, except for going to Lagoon) We did such free things as making crafts (which was very interesting seeing as how we fail epically in the crafty department), eating rice krispy treats with popcorn on them, making a monster batch of scones, going on a picnic with our friend Kristy, painting daisies on red rubber balls (refer to "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" by Relient K), and watching lots of movies. Actually, we didn't watch that many movies, we just watched them lots of times. ;) We established awhile ago that we'd never seen Say Anything with John Cusack and Ione Skye, and that we needed to, so we decided to watch it as a free activity. Honestly, it's one of my new favorite movies of all time. I don't know how many times we watched a certain deleted scene of Corey singing this ridiculous song called "He Hurts Me" to a dinosaur. I definitely recommend watching it for that one scene. Also, Sorine forced me to watch "Better off Dead", also with John Cusack. WATCH THIS MOVIE! hahaha I love it so much! It's such a crackhead movie; it's fantastic! I'm guessing you've probably had enough of my friendship reminiscinces, so I'll quit, but we really did have so much fun.

I guess next on the list of topics to discuss is the fact that I finally got a job! :) Yes, blog readers, I am now employed by Village Inn. I sell old people pie for a living. I really love my job; everyone there is incredibly friendly, and my job is incredibly easy. The first day of work, my boss gave me ten different pieces of pie and was like, "Your assignment is to try all of these. Have fun!" And blog readers, I did have fun. Free pie is the greatest thing on earth! However, my job's not giving me the hours I hoped it would, so I may possibly have to look for another. :/ College sucks.

Sorry that this is so long, but I just have a few more things to say. If you're taking the time to read any of this, I love you! :) So next, I had a fantastic 18th birthday party. Yes, as of the 31, I am an official member of the adult society. The night before my party, I decided I really wanted my cousins from Rexburg to come, and they all got work off, so my mom and Dorie and I decided to take a spontaneous road trip to go up and get them. Luckily, we met my uncle and aunt halfway, so it was only three hours each way, instead of five. However, I had to drive the entire way up. I didn't mind too much that it was three hours on the freeway, but the fact that it was raining and that it was night didn't make me too happy. We made it though, and I didn't kill anyone. ha ha I was so glad my cousins got to come down for the weekend; they hadn't been to my house for almost 10 years. My cousin Kim and I had a fantastic time gossiping and shopping and all of those teenage girl-type things. Then was my partaayy! :D Things started out a little roughly: I had to work all day, then I was running late, then my ride was late, then we got lost... etc. But it ended up being super fun. :) Sorine's dad, Ken, was so nice and let me use his gym for my party. (It's a gymnastics gym, so we played, hardcore :D) And, my dear friends Brad and Blue (AKA The Glass Gentlemen) played an acoustic show for me. It was fantastic! I had so many great friends come, and it was a choice way to ring in my adulthood. I finally decorated a foam block for the foam pit.... with dinosaurs! (duh, what else?)

The next day Sorine, Braden, Kendra, and I voyaged on down to the Avalon to support The Glass Gentlemen while they opened for The Recovery. There were so many bands playing that night, most were good, some were bad, a few were interesting. I didn't catch half of their names, so I won't bore you with the details. However, I will tell you that Brad and Blue did a phenomenal job, and that you should check out their new album on their bandcamp account. :) It was a fantastic way to spend my actual birthday. (Except the Avalon was on crack and had benches all the way up to the stage...)

So, FINALLY, that was my July. Not too exciting, but not too bad, either. So, what's in store for August? Well, my friend Braden and I have been working on some of my music together, and I hope to keep making progress on that. I'll be working. A lot, hopefully. All of my friends are going to be leaving me to get a higher education. Oh, and I'M GOING TO SEE SOMETHING CORPORATE!!!!!:DDD Lowery and Larissa have returned from Idaho, and Lowery and I have already had some pretty lame adventures together. I'm pretty excited to just chill in August, so hit me up, friends. :)

Soo, song of the blog. Maybe I should start putting this at the top of my posts, because it's the only worthwhile part of them. The song I have become madly addicted to recently is "Charmer" by Kings of Leon. I decided I'd venture from their singles and actually give their albums a legit listen... and I actually really liked their stuff, especially this song. Caleb's screams make my heart do flips! Really, it's because of this song and music video that I now want to marry him. Besides his screams and well, him, this song has these incredible bass lines. The instrumental bridge is phenomenal! Another music addiction of mine that's actually been going on for months now is the band Ice Nine Kills. They're not for everyone (too hardcore for some, not hardcore enough for others), but I love them! I recently hit the jackpot on their Purevolume and got tons of free downloads, including some of their way old punk/ska stuff. I love that as well as their newer and newest stuff (it's all a little different... or a lot) I love their acoustic stuff (I suggest "The Simple Act of Giving Up" and "What I Really Learned in Study Hall"), as well as their more hardcore stuff (I suggest "The Greatest Story Ever Told", "In the Throws of a Moral Quandary", and "Build Your Own Disaster") Definitely check them out!

Summer Goals

We all know how summer starts out: we're full of high expectations and make lists of stupid, pointless things we want to do in the summer to have "adventures", but mostly we just sit home wondering what to do and never accomplish any of these goals. (i.e. stealing a safety cone) I've decided this is going to be a fantastic summer, a summer of change. So, I'm not making a list of goals which will not help me accomplish anything in life, and that nobody wants to read anyways. I've narrowed my list down to just a few goals, which you still probably don't care to read.



1. Get a job.

This one is self-explanatory: I need something productive to do with my time. I'm a poor highschool graduate going to school in January. I need to start becoming an adult sometime. Plus, my mom nags me about three times a day.... I've been searching and submitting applications and following up, but nobody's hiring.. Stupid economy! Hopefully I will find one soon. If anyone can help me out with this, I'd love you forever!



2. Be loud.

Most of you probably know me as "The loud, tall, blonde girl" so you're wondering to yourselves what the crap kind of goal this is. Well, I will elaborate for you. Yes, I am loud. I can talk for hours at volume levels which are normally not socially acceptable. However, I've always been a very reserved person, constantly trying to be polite, diplomatic, and not offensive to anyone. While I think these are important characteristics, and a core part of who I am, a lot of times I end up not standing up for myself and being a total pushover. I end up not expressing myself how I need to. This summer I'm going to work on saying what's on my mind, I'm going to allow myself to get angry and let it show. I'm going to be more daring with the clothes I wear. I'm not going to restrict myself by getting to know only certain types of people. I'm going to be loud. :)



3. Become a musician.

My excuse for not writing music is always "I don't have time". Well, as of this moment, I have all the time in the world. And I'm inspired. I plan on writing a lot of music this summer, and maybe recording some of it. I also plan on learning to play the guitar. I have wanted to for so long, and now my desire to do so is just too much. I have to learn... well, I need to purchase a guitar first, which means I need money... hence goal one. Also, I plan on expanding my vocal horizons. Not only do I want to become a better singer, I want to experiment with different styles than I'm used to. As part of goal two, I want to roughen up the edges of my voice. I'm going to sing loudly and obnoxiously until I find something I like. I also really want to learn how to scream.

4. Learn how to take care of a house.

I figure learning how to take care of an house and yard is something that's important to do before I move out. Since I have so much more free time, I'm going to clean the house more, and hopefully learn something about how to have pretty grass. Also, I should probably cook more....

5. Learn to drive.

This one is also self-explanatory. I am 18 and don't have a driver's license.

6. Grow closer to God.

I no longer have the excuse of being out of time to not read my scriptures. This summer, I really want to strengthen my testimony and grow closer to the Lord. I'm starting the Book of Mormon over again, and maybe this time I can actually finish it!

So that's it! My summer goals list! That wasn't so painful, now was it? I really think these are obtainable goals that will acutally improve my life. :)


The song for the blog today... well, I have two. I've become absolutely addicted to these songs lately, and believe they need to be shared. If you're looking for something sweet and acoustic, I recomment "First Day of My Life" by Bright Eyes. I've decided this song is being played at my wedding, and I'm just so in love with it! If you're in the mood for something a little more hardcore, I recommend "The Greatest Story Ever Told" by Ice Nine Kills. I've become incredibly addicted to this band, and just think they're fantastic... especially this song! Mmm :D